Types of Anxiety Disorders
Separation Anxiety Disorder
Separation anxiety disorder is characterized by excessive anxiety or fear about separation from home or from those close to the child. Symptoms can include:
- Refusal to attend school
- Difficulties sleeping alone at home or attending sleepovers outside of the home
- Difficulties being left with babysitters or other caregivers
- Physical complaints (like stomachaches, headaches)
- Difficulty during transitions (for example, Sunday nights before school)
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
Generalized anxiety disorder involves excessive, uncontrollable worry about various aspects of life. These worries occur most days for at least six months. Symptoms can include:
- Constant worry about school, friendships, health and / or future events
- Need for frequent reassurance
- Physical symptoms: fatigue, muscle tension, headaches, stomachaches
- Sleep disturbances
- Difficulty concentrating
- Irritability and restlessness
- Avoidance of situations that may trigger worry
- Clingy behavior and reluctance to be away from caregivers
Panic Disorder
Panic attacks are sudden episodes of intense fear and discomfort. These episodes also come with a feeling of doom and danger. Symptoms of a panic attack include:
- Sudden intense fear or sense of doom
- Racing heartbeat
- Chest pain
- Shortness of breath or choking sensation
- Dizziness, lightheadedness
- Sweating
- Shaking or trembling
- Nausea or stomach pain
- Fear of dying or “going crazy”
- Feeling detached from reality
- Avoidance of places where attacks occurred (may lead to agoraphobia)
- Panic attacks usually peak within a few minutes. The attack may be unexpected. It may be in response to a known trigger such as a specific object or situation.
Panic disorder consists of recurrent panic attacks with worry about having additional panic attacks in the future. Panic attacks can be associated with the fear of open spaces (like public places), which may result in a fear of leaving the home.
Specific Phobia
Phobias involve intense fear of a specific object or situation, out of proportion to actual danger. Symptoms can include:
- Crying, tantrums or freezing when exposed to the feared object / situation
- Physical symptoms such as trembling, sweating or dizziness
- Avoidance behaviors that interfere with daily life
- Anxiety attacks triggered by anticipation or exposure
Common phobias include animals (for example, dogs, insects), storms, heights, blood, injections and flying.
Social Phobia or Social Anxiety Disorder
Social anxiety disorder involves intense fear of social situations due to fear of embarrassment or judgment. Symptoms can include:
- Avoidance of speaking in class, eating in public, or group activities
- Physical symptoms such as blushing, sweating, nausea, trembling
- Fear of being watched, laughed at or judged
- Difficulty making or keeping friends
- Withdrawal, freezing or tantrums in social settings
- Over-preparation or refusal to participate in presentations or performances
Selective Mutism
Selective mutism is a failure to speak in specific social settings despite speaking normally in others. Children with selective mutism do not have a speech or language problem; they can speak normally, but only do so in certain settings (like at home). Symptoms can include:
- Speaking freely at home but remaining silent in school or public
- Use of gestures or whispering to communicate
- Avoidance of eye contact, frozen posture, or expressionless demeanor
- Profound shyness and fear of social embarrassment
- Difficulty initiating or responding, even nonverbally
- Physical symptoms such as stomachaches, nausea, or peeing/wetting themselves
- Social isolation or being misunderstood as defiant
This condition often happens along with social anxiety disorder and may severely impact academic and social development.
